JOHNNY AKERS
  
Killed By Train, Belief Second Member of Family To Be Found Dead
Within 3 Years
  
The dead body of Johnny Akers, about 35, Offutt, was found on the C.
& O. Railroad tracks at the White House last Monday morning. The
body was discovered about 5 o'clock by a number of WPA workers who
were en route to their jobs.
  
According to the WPA workers the body was lying between the two
rails and the clothing was practically stripped from the body.
  
        Killed By Train, Belief The man's shoes were lying beside
the track. Foul play was suspected at first but an examination of
the body by officers indicates that Akers had been run over by a
passing train. It is believed that he fell under a freight train and
his clothing torn off by being rolled along the ties as the train
passed over the body. Aker's arm was severed from the body, his head
crushed and otherwise mangled by the train.
  
The body was lifted from the center of the track and placed beside
the railway line and officers called from Paintsville, Coroner Dr.
O. E. Johnson, County
  
Attorney Don C. VanHoose and Sheriff Julius Daniel went to the scene
of the tragedy but found that the body had been picked up by a
Prestonsburg ambulance and taken there to be prepared for burial.
His mother and two sisters reside at Prestonsburg.
  
Ill luck seems to dog the footsteps of the Akers family. Two members
of the family have died violent deaths within the past three years.
About three years ago the dead body of his father, Logan Akers, was
found dead at Offutt where he had been placed upon a pile of
driftwood in the edge of the Big Sandy River. He had been killed and
placed there, it was reported at the time.
  
Johnny Akers was a brother of Clyde Akers who was convicted last
week for the killing of Raymond Castle in the Hill Beer parlor in
Bridgford about two weeks ago.
  
Akers had spent Sunday in Prestonsburg and returned to White House
on the evening passenger train. He was seen about 1 a.m., Monday.
The accident occurred between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday.
  
PAINTSVILLE HERALD
Thursday
July 4, 1940
    
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